Romans 6.6b-The Believer's Sin Nature Has Been Deprived Of Its Power So He Might Not Be Its Slave
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday June 18, 2008
Romans: Romans 6:6b-The Believer’s Sin Nature Has Been Deprived Of Its Power So That He Might Not Be Its Slave
Lesson # 184
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 6:1.
Tuesday, we studied Romans 6:6a, which teaches that the believer’s old Adamic sin nature was crucified with Christ on the Cross.
This evening we will study Romans 6:6b, which teaches that the believer’s old Adamic sin nature has been crucified at the Cross in order that it might be deprived of its power so that the believer might not be its slave.
Romans 6:1-7, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin for he who has died is freed from sin.”
“In order that our body of sin might be done away with” emphasizes that it is an accomplished fact that the justified sinner’s old Adamic sin nature was crucified with Christ and that the old Adamic sin nature has been deprived of its power in relation to the justified sinner.
It emphasizes that this is not only God’s viewpoint of the justified sinner’s old Adamic sin nature but also what He has done regarding it through the baptism of the Spirit.
Romans 6:6, “Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.”
“Our body of sin” is composed of the noun soma (swma) (so-mah), “our body” and the noun hamartia (a(martiva) (ham-ar-tee-ah), “of sin.”
The noun hamartia in Romans 6:6 is a reference to the sin nature since it is not in the plural but rather in the singular and is articular indicating the sin nature is in view rather than personal sins.
In other words, the word in the singular emphasizes sin as an entity and not sins in general.
The noun refers to the inherent propensity in mankind to commit mental, verbal and overt acts of sin.
The word is modified by the articular genitive form of the noun hamartia, “sin,” which functions as an “attributive genitive” meaning that it specifies an attribute or an innate quality of the head noun, which is soma, “body.”
This type of genitive expresses quality like an adjective but with more sharpness and distinctness.
Thus, it emphasizes the “sinfulness” of the human body or in other words, that it is “inherently sinful” because it is corrupted by the sin nature, which resides in its genetic structure.
This would agree with what we see in our own bodies, which deteriorate with age and eventually ceased to function and decompose.
This is further indication that the sin nature resides in the genetic structure of the physical body.
The fact that the sin nature resides in the genetic structure of the physical body is why the justified sinner needs a resurrection body to replace his sinful body.
This is why Christ had to die physically and rise from the dead in a resurrection body because the sin nature resides in the human body.
Therefore, the human body is inherently sinful, which is the result of the curse that the Lord put on Adam and his posterity (See Genesis 3:18-19).
The fall of Adam not only affected his fellowship with God but also it effected his environment and his physical body!
Genesis 3:18-19, “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
The physical body of human beings eventually ceases to function and decomposes into the dust of ground because they are inherently sinful.
They are inherently sinful because of the curse the Lord put on Adam and his posterity.
Romans 6:6, “Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.”
“Might be done away with” is the verb katargeo (katargevw) (kat-arg-eh-o), which is used in relation to the believer’s old Adamic sin nature being crucified with Christ and means, “deprived of its power.”
In Romans 6:6, the verb katargeo does “not” mean that the old Adamic sin nature has been permanently eradicated since that will not take place until the believer receives his resurrection body (1 Corinthians 15:50-58).
Rather, the word means that the believer’s old Adamic sin nature has been “deprived of its power” over the believer since it was crucified with Christ in His death, which broke its power.
In Romans 6:6, Paul is speaking of the ruling power of the sin nature being “positionally” broken and not “permanently” or “experientially.”
By “positionally,” I mean that God views the believer’s old Adamic sin nature as having been deprived of its power over the believer as a result of the Holy Spirit identifying him with Christ’s crucifixion (Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20).
By “positional,” I am referring to what God has done for the church age believer when He identified him with Christ in His crucifixion or in other words, when He crucified the believer’s old Adamic sin nature with Christ at the Cross.
It also means that God views church age believer’s old Adamic sin nature as having been crucified with Christ as a result of the baptism of the Spirit.
The fact that the believer’s old Adamic sin nature was crucified with Christ through the baptism of the Spirit sets up the potential to experience this deliverance from the power of the sin nature in time.
It also provides the believer with the guarantee of experiencing permanently deliverance from the power of the sin nature when they receive a resurrection body at the rapture of the church.
The believer’s sin nature will not be permanently eradicated until he physically dies or when the rapture of the church takes place when the believer will receive a resurrection body to replace the body he now has, which contains the old sin nature (See 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; Philippians 3:20-21).
The believer can experience this victory and deliverance by appropriating by faith the teaching of the Word of God that he has been crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ (Romans 6:11-23; 8:1-17; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:5-17).
Romans 6:6, “Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.”
“So that we would no longer be slaves” means that the believer no longer needs to be a slave to his sin nature and yield himself to its desires since his sin nature was crucified with Christ and has thus been deprived of its power over him.
He now has the capacity to reject being a slave to the desires of the sin nature and the alternative now to reject its desires.
Therefore, in Romans 6:6, we can see that the apostle Paul employed three different terms to designate the sin nature with each having a different emphasis.
The first expression ho palaios anthropos, “the old man” referred to the sin nature but from the perspective of its point of origin, namely, the transgression of Adam.
The second is to soma tes hamartias, “the sinful body,” which speaks of the sin nature from the perspective of its location, namely, in the genetic structure of the human body.
The third is te hamartia, “the sin nature,” which is personified and speaks of the sin nature from the perspective of its rulership over the sinner.